Adios, 2006!

Well, we've put yet another year in the can, and here we are about to welcome in a brand new one. I'd like to take this time to thank all of you who are so faithful as to look in on this almost every day and bestow lavish praise upon me. It's been a lot of fun and -- I hope -- entertaining, as well. I'm still debating the whole Day In The Life thing, but I'll still keep it going as is for now, anyway. Thanks again for tuning in to the show, and have a very Happy New Year!

Best to all,
Doug

Mt Everest -- Texas style!

Most workdays are pretty humdrum visually. I mean, I never get tired of looking at the scenery around here, but it looks pretty much the same pretty much all the time. Not so yesterday morning. To offset a crystal-clear beginning, some clouds rolled in from the northeast, boiling up and over Persimmon Peak on the east side of my booth about an hour after official sunrise. I managed to dash out between incoming cars and catch them in the act. Awesome!

Yuletide Texana

A few images from my trip back to the Dallas/Ft Worth area for Christmas. I apologize for the rather hasty compositions, but I was in a time crunch. I need to go back and do them up right, but I just wanted to share these with you.


This is the world's largest roadrunner, Fort Stockton's own Paisano Pete, all decked out for the holidays. Paisano, by the way, is the local name for the roadrunner which means "little friend," a name given to them because they would follow the cattle drives hunting for insects stirred up in the herd's wake.


Here we have the Girvin Social Club in bustling Girvin, Texas (pop. 50). The original town of Girvin is officially a ghost town now, as the "town" moved itself a mile to the east when the highway went through. I just found this out and must go check it out someday. This is the current Girvin, or at least most of it. A couple of run-down houses and an old rusting Santa Fe boxcar comprise the rest.


This is the Texas Grill in Ballinger. I just love the cafe's signs, as well as the building itself, but have yet to actually go in and sample its fare. I really must remedy that someday.


Here we are at the Glen Rose Information Center. I've been coming to Glen Rose to camp since before the big fossil and dinosaur footprint boom, and way before the State Park came ever into existence. (In fact, they took over my favorite camping spot on the Paluxy River.)


And here we have an abandoned movie theater in Big Lake. I don't know how many times I've traveled Highway 67 and this is the first time I've even noticed this thing. How's that for observation? I don't even know the name of the theater, but I'm going to find out somehow.

Rangra Theater

Finally! After years of trying to capture the front of the Rangra Theater in Alpine, I came across it today with good lighting and NO cars in front of it. This has been a major source of frustration for me, let me tell you, as I think one of my future projects is to document as many of these old theaters -- restored, repainted, decrepit, etc. -- as I can come across, wherever I may find them. I may have to include drive-ins, too, as they seem to be fading into memory, even as I type.

Foolin' Around

While bored in the booth today, I started poking around in my little camera and came across the settings for "Sepia" and "2:3" so I thought I'd have a go. The 2:3 is the same ratio as 35mm film format and, as I abhor the traditional "salon" ratio of 4:5 (always have), I may just have to set it on this and leave it be. The sepia toning adds a lot.

Fog And Fog Again

Weather is a funny thing, you know? It was foggy when I woke up this morning, clear by the time I went to work, then fogged up again. I figured the Weather Gods were trying to tell me something, so I stepped outside and took a shot of the peak off the the west. It kind of reminds me of a color field painting -- like something Mark Rothko might do. The light diagonal band you can barely make out in the sky is the early stages (before the sun hits the fog) of what could be called a "white rainbow," an arc of white with only the barest hint of color along the edges. It was quite an amazing thing but, unfortunately, it didn't photograph well. Meteorological phenomena are just that way.

Moody Day

On my travels throughout the entire park yesterday (well, almost), I just had to stop and take a few shots of this cloud activity hanging over the Chisos Mountains. It hearkened back to a time when Creation was still new and the world held vast possibilities -- you know, before Man came around and mucked things up. Maybe not quite Frans Lanting's style, but I'm sure he would appreciate the mood.

Marathon

Here's a favorite subject of mine: the viga logs (roof support) of an adobe building. These particular ones are from the courtyard of some fairly recent additions of the historic Gage Hotel in Marathon. These are stand-alone buildings, so I guess you can't really call them additions. They're very nice, though. Okay, I guess I should give you the whole tour while I'm at it.


Here's what attracted my eye as I breezed through Marathon (pop. 455) on my way to Alpine to purchase groceries and my new grill. The combination of textures and lighting was just too exciting to pass up.


Not content, as usual, I drifted around to the entry and into the courtyard. Wow! I've been by this place a hundred times (well . . . maybe) and never once knew this was here. These ground floor rooms are called Los Portales, and were completed in 1992. Some even have fireplaces. Pretty sweet, huh?


Wall detail. Now, how could any self-respecting Texan see such a nice cow skull on a wall and not take a picture of it? Can't be done, son.


Moving back out onto and just down the street, we find the historic Gage Hotel itself, built in 1927 by a former Vermonter named Alfred Gage. Sadly, Alfred passed away shortly after the opening and never got to fully enjoy its success.


And, last but not least, we have the little town of Marathon, itself. A thriving little community of shops and galleries -- and one rocking hamburger joint, Johnny B's -- Marathon (pronounced MAIR-uh-thun) really does prosper fairly well these days, despite its apparent sleepiness. The skyline, a tall cylindrical water tower (not seen here), is one of my favorite landmarks in my travels into the area, as I know I'm only about a half-hour from Big Bend.

Man Must Grill

All righty, then! Having endured almost three weeks without grilling anything -- except on a George Foreman grill, but that doesn't really count -- I'm now the proud owner of a slick little Weber Go-Anywhere propane grill. Since my old Sunbeam literally burnt itself out, I decided once again to get a propane grill for out here in the wide open West where the uppity winds can cover everything in the neighborhood with a fine coating of ashes. These little guys are just so easy to operate, too, and there's minimal clean-up involved. All in all, I'm quite happy with my purchase and I can't wait to throw my freshly-bought load of chicken wings on it to celebrate. Woo hoo!!! Hot time in the ol' desert tonight!

Legomaniac Strikes Again

Well, I've been at it again. Sometimes I find photos of odd, improbable aircraft and I have to see if I can replicate them using Legos (see Lego Autoplane in October 2006). This time, the Rocheville Arctic Tern caught my fancy and I just could not get it out of my system until I built one for myself. I mulled the two photos over in my head for about a week, mentally fitting various Lego pieces together again and again, trying to visualize how to best achieve the plane's quirky design. Then, today, I could stand it no longer and had to sit down and have at it. At my cousin Mary's urging, here are the results:

This is the original Arctic Tern, the photos gleaned from the website 1000aircraftphotos.com:



And here are my attempts at its re-creation:



I had to take some liberties along the way, since Lego blocks don't always form things the way you would like, but I tried to be as faithful as I could. If you've never played with Legos before, you're missing out on a wonderful way to blow a few hours. Give 'em a try!

p.s. You know, after looking over the blog, I noticed that none of the shots above really show the plane off fully. So, I shot another couple of angles to show off its lines. Here's a departing shot:

Sunsets, sunsets, sunsets . . .

Well, it seems all I ever do these days is take pictures of sunsets out here. Granted, during my workweek, there isn't much opportunity for much else, but I need to expand my horizons (no pun intended), don't you think? At least the recent sunsets have been pretty nice.